Everything was disrupted

We have a nice pile of brush. This tree's falling down from the hurricane, ready for the wood chipper that's coming tomorrow. Right here, this will be the first pile we'll need to do because we got to get wood chips in the high tunnel. New high tunnel from Farmers Friends. If you didn't see that, you could watch the last couple of-ish videos of us putting that together. They put it together in just 2 days. It'll be a nice dry place for the chickens. We use the chickens and the wood chips to build soil for this garden for to come spring, then plant the, uh, the heat-loving crops— tomato, cucumber, squash, green beans, things like that. Maybe 2025 is our year to quit the grocery store. We got something to do before that wood chipper comes. There's more trees down on the property. Those are going to be tricky, but we want to have all get all our brush ready so that we can get done with this wood chipper, hopefully in one day, to minimize costs. Happy day and welcome to another episode of The Rooted Life. We're growing what we eat and eating what we grow. The, uh, let's say the Everflow waterer is working again a little too well. I think it's crazy because it rained and a little down spout where I can take some of the extra water when we have more. See, it comes in faster than it can go out. There's a way to slow it down, but we ran over the pipes when we were working up our branches for the wood chipper. We got some stuff over here too. I don't know if the wood chipper will take that or not. Stumpy. We'll see. We're getting a big one. Commercial 12-inch, which wood chipper means to take a 12-inch log. We also got some other things things on the to-do list, like if we can get done with this project early, take Jonah in to get his dirt bike fixed. I've been very patient. And I noticed the Christmas tree is drying out at the bottom. I'm kind of wondering if, if it's too late, or can we recut it? And we're still not moved in. We moved in like right before the hurricane and got distracted, you know, and And now have a bunch of boxes to go through and put away, and would like to do that before Christmas. Actually, before— by the end of the week, so we could enjoy time before Christmas in our new house. Apple cider vinegar. Bring on the ladies, the matriarchs. I was gonna go work up those— that brush. What you look— what you doing?

Skid steer track came off.

Oh my gosh, that one's not easy to put back on. What are you gonna do? Is there not a chain up there at the butchering shed? I think actually you guys might have left it the last place you pulled it off. Go see if it's out in front of the garden. On top of the track issues, I don't know what happened. I was about to go sharpen my chain wasn't lining up quite right. I didn't even pull it down and just the disc just exploded. Jonah, here it is. Embarrassing. Hook only on one end. This isn't the two nice chains that we have. Wait, you don't need our normal size chain?

No, I need a rope.

Wait, why? We've been using chains and that's the problem. That— it got pretty— it got on pretty quick with the track loader. That's a rope halter. This is perfect.

No, this is exactly what I need. There's so many.

I do? Yes. All right.

And you never use them.

How's he gonna do this without a machine? Wow, there went my rope halter. It was working. Okay. There's a proper way to do this. You get it up, you retract, you, you, you have that chain, you retract the tension on the, on the track, you put it on, then you tighten up the tension. I do have that chain, but you don't want to break that chain, then bad things happen. Jonah, have you ever put the track loader track back on without loosening the tension? Well, then the track, the track is too loose, too broad of a pull, it's not wrapping around the track. Well, I went to find a chain and the guy got it.

I told you not to.

Well, I would like to find our chains. It's stressing me out. Then don't feel stressed. How?

I'm pulling this rock up to the road and I'm gonna drag it down the road so I don't tear the pasture up.

But you can't pull it this way. You're trying to pull it off there. Your track will come off.

I fill in a hole.

Okay, he's getting that big rock we need for our retainer wall around our pole barn where the hurricane washed out. Hurricane Helene blew all that away. This is the start of the rebuild. We're not gonna have enough material to like slope all the way up, so we're gonna have to build— we're building this retaining wall with what we have, and then we can build to there. Plus I think this will look really nice. See, we'll have to do this retaining wall all the way past the pole barn, and then we can just bevel and make do with what we've got. It assures me it was that hole that got his track off. Wow. Huge rock. He can drag it, he can't pick it. They're so good with these machines. Oh boy, I'm pretty sure he's just dragging it. Something about getting thrown off the plan stresses me out. Do you guys get stressed when that happens? Like, this wasn't the Plan? We would be sawing, but then we burst that grinding wheel. We did have spares. The word on the creek is somebody took a hammer to them. That's some mad skill right there. Holding it on to the straight, riding a nollie. You know how to get the stone off? We're gonna make sure we get the right one.

Usually there's the blade.

There's some way to lock. No, there is— oh, you can hang on to the blades there to hold. That's not the vice grips. Where's our vice grips? Huh? Now come on, let's find them. Is it turning?

Yeah, that is not—

is that the wrong direction?

That's the wrong direction.

Something weighing on my heart. I think it'd be worth a try. I think it's probably too late. I think it's worth a try to save our tree, and then we'll know for next time. Randolph, you think it's too late to save this tree? It's not drawing water, so I'm gonna saw the trunk. Yeah, you're already drawn out for a while. Yeah, I'm afraid that might have been the case when we got it. Randolph says it's worth a shot. What do you think, Annie? AI says it's worth a shot. How do we get this out without spilling the water out? We get the tree out of the Container. It's because I already loosened it.

Set it down.

I will, I will. It's a mess. Going from something that was living outside in the cold right here to cut off and living inside at 70 degrees. All this sap developed under here. And hey, I'm starting to think it was not our fault because we had them cut it at the place. Right, but we didn't cut it when we got home. Man, what's happening? Hate to leave the farm when it's bright and sunny, but I've been telling Jonah we're gonna do this. I put it on the calendar. Taking his bike in, getting Josiah some driving hours, and getting a grinding stone so we can sharpen the chainsaw. All right, don't be tempted, boys. Yeah, lots of bags. We got everything we need. So you think it's gonna be under warranty? Or not.

I hope so.

I mean, they dropped it from wheeling and the pedal went— put a hole in the side of the motor. Surely the Homestead Store. I think it's a total futile trip to Lowe's. I think this is a special grinding wheel, although we could check in the chainsaws. Nothing like a grinding wheel. All right, well, they didn't have it. It'll be a special order over the internet. Jonah, your chainsaw is sharp though, isn't it?

Yeah, it's sharp.

Now we're going to a culvert place to really pick their mind about what to do about this bridge up to Big Daddy's that's gone.

Can we cut it in half?

Yep.

So we could just buy one and then cut it in half.

What do you think, Beck? Is culvert the answer? No.

I didn't really want to do a culvert because we'd have to do 2. Well, we can buy one of those pups, so it is definitely a lesser option. I mean, as far as like us, because we don't have to buy one. It's like, what, $1,300?

Oh, because you can cut it in half.

Because we can cut it in half. So just do a chainsaw.

Just do that. If we're ever having an event again, we just build it again.

Well, I think we need to do the concrete. I like that.

You think you could do that? Yeah, that's easy excavating right there. Yeah, load the wood chipper with the Mini X. It's been one of those kind of days though. I just called to see if our— we've been on the list. Wood chipper for tomorrow, it got returned to them. It's just— I won't say destroyed, but it's tore up. It's going to be in their shop. They can call me when it's ready. They cannot tell me when they're going to call me. Everything we've wanted to do today has gotten disrupted.